''Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options'' is a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

report, released by the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

(FAO) of the United Nations on 29 November 2006, that "aims to assess the full impact of the

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation". It stated that livestock accounts for 18% of anthropogenic

greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...

, a figure which FAO changed to 14.5% in its 2013 study ''Tackling climate change through livestock''.

Report

''Livestock's Long Shadow'' is an assessment of research, taking into account direct impacts of livestock production, along with the impacts of feed crop cultivation. The report states that the

sector is one of the top two or three most significant contributors to serious environmental problems. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of

land degradation Land degradation is a process where land becomes less healthy and productive due to a combination of Human impact on the environment, human activities or natural conditions. The causes for land degradation are numerous and complex. Human activitie ...

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and

air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

, water shortage and

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of Body of water, water bodies, with a negative impact on their uses. It is usually a result of human activities. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and ...

, and loss of biodiversity. Senior author Henning Steinfeld stated that livestock are "one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems" and that "urgent action is required to remedy the situation." Following a

life-cycle analysis Life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as life cycle analysis, is a methodology for assessing the impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of a manufact ...

approach, the report evaluates "that livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions." Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arise from feed production (e.g. chemical

fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...

production,

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

for

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

and feed crops, cultivation of feed crops, feed transport and

soil erosion Soil erosion is the denudation or wearing away of the Topsoil, upper layer of soil. It is a form of soil degradation. This natural process is caused by the dynamic activity of erosive agents, that is, water, ice (glaciers), snow, Atmosphere of Ea ...

), animal production (e.g. enteric fermentation and

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

and

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or factitious air, among others, is a chemical compound, an Nitrogen oxide, oxide of nitrogen with the Chemical formula, formula . At room te ...

emissions from

manure Manure is organic matter that is used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Most manure consists of animal feces; other sources include compost and green manure. Manures contribute to the fertility of soil by adding organic matter and nut ...

) and as a result of the transportation of animal products. Following this approach the report estimates that livestock "is responsible for 18 percent" of total

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human impact on the enviro ...

carbon dioxide emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate change. The ...

, but 37% of methane and 65% of nitrous oxide emissions. The main sources of emissions were found to be: * Land use and

land use change Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: for ...

: 2.5 Gigatonnes

carbon dioxide equivalent Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a specific time period, relative to carbon dioxide (). It is expressed as a multiple of warming caused by the same mass of carbon dioxide ( ...

; including forest and other natural vegetation replaced by pasture and feed crop in the Neotropics (CO₂) and carbon release from soils such as pasture and arable land dedicated to feed production (CO₂) * Feed Production (except carbon released from soil): 0.4 Gigatonnes CO₂ equivalent, including fossil fuel used in manufacturing chemical fertilizer for feed crops (CO₂) and chemical fertilizer application on feed crops and leguminous feed crop (N₂O, NH₃) * Animal production: 1.9 Gigatonnes CO₂ equivalent, including enteric fermentation from

ruminant Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microb ...

s (CH₄) and on-farm fossil fuel use (CO₂) * Manure Management: 2.2 Gigatonnes CO₂ equivalent, mainly through manure storage, application and deposition (CH₄, N₂O, NH₃) * Processing and international transport: 0.03 Gigatonnes CO₂ equivalent

Controversy

A 2009 article in the

Worldwatch Institute The Worldwatch Institute was a globally focused environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., founded by Lester R. Brown. Worldwatch was named as one of the top ten sustainable development research organizations by Globescan S ...

magazine by authors Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, then employed at the World Bank, claimed that the FAO report was too conservative and that livestock sector accounts for much more of global GHG emissions, at least 51%, taking into account animal respiration and photosynthetic capacity of the land used for feeding and housing livestock. A 2011 response to this was published by FAO and an international coalition of scientists, discrediting the magazine article and upholding the 2006 assessment. But this response was fully answered back in the journal ''Animal Feed Science and Technology'' (''AFST''), and they reiterated their estimate while FAO scientists declined to continue the debate despite ''AFST'''s Editor's invitation. In 2013 FAO publicly partnered with International Meat Secretariat and the International Dairy Federation and many of the same authors of the first report published a subsequent (2013) study for the FAO, revising their estimate of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions due to livestock downward to 14.5% without addressing any of the alleged errors pointed out in Goodland and Anhang's report or in the ensuing peer-reviewed debate. The results of ''Livestock's Long Shadow'' had an error in methodology as the authors only evaluated the tailpipe emissions of cars, while for meat production a comprehensive

life-cycle assessment Life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as life cycle analysis, is a methodology for assessing the impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product, process, or service. For instance, in the case of a manufact ...

was used to calculate livestock's green house gas effect. This underestimated transportation therefore inflating meat productions contribution. This issue was raised by Dr. Frank Mitloehner from the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. In an interview with BBC Pierre Gerber, one of the authors of ''Livestock's Long Shadow'', accepted Mitloehner's criticism. "I must say honestly that he has a point - we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn't do the same thing with transport, we just used the figure from the IPCC..." he said. However, this information was the inspiration behind movements such as "Meatless Monday" Mitloehner is the author of a 2009 study on the topic of livestock and climate change. Five percent of the funds for said study were provided by the livestock industry, according to a press release by Mitloehner's university. FAO cites him as a representative of the International Feed Industry Federation, whose "vision is to provide a unified voice and leadership to represent and promote the global feed industry as an essential participant in the food chain that provides sustainable, safe, nutritious and affordable food for a growing world population." Between 2002 and 2021 Mitloehner and his research center received $12.5 million in funding from industry groups. 2019 they coordinated efforts to discredit the EAT Lancet report. Later they led the campaign #yes2meat on social media.

References to the report

The report was the main scientific source for the documentary ''Meat The Truth'', narrated by

Marianne Thieme Marianne Louise Thieme (; born 6 March 1972) is a Dutch politician, author and animal rights activist. A jurist and theologian by education, she served as the Party for the Animals' political leader from 2002 to 2019 and a member of the House of R ...

(2007). It was frequently cited in the documentary ''

Cowspiracy ''Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret'' is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn. The film explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment—examining such environmental concerns a ...

'' (2014)."Cowspiracy: The Facts"
/ref>

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Books, Food, Politics, Environment Environmental non-fiction books Environmental reports Sustainable food system Food and the environment United Nations reports 2006 documents 2006 in the environment 2006 in international relations Climate change and agriculture Livestock

Report

Controversy

References to the report

See also

References

External links